


Color (INDEFINITE HIATUS)

by Menhera_Piers (orphan_account)



Category: Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing, Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: Alternate Universe - Middle School, Alternate Universe - Non-Despair (Dangan Ronpa), Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Atua is not Atua in this, Brother/Sister Incest, Child Celebrities, Dehumanization, Eating Disorders, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Everyone Has Issues, Everyone Needs A Hug, Everyone is Queer, F/F, F/M, For such small people they have such big problems, Getting Hit in the Crotch, Getting Hit in the Face, Gonta is our friendly local Bi Disaster, Gonta's from a rich family and he knows it, He's not a brat tho. Just aware of his financial status., Hiding Places, Just God., Kokichi doesn't lie as much, M/M, Non-Consensual Kissing, One-Sided Attraction, School for Gifted Kids™, Sweet Gokuhara Gonta, They don't have uniforms, This is really messed up guys gals and nonbinary pals, and im too tired to research, dodgeball - Freeform, everyone is sad, he's not pure tho :/, i have no idea how japanese middle school works, self-deprecation, they're in america btw
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-05
Updated: 2019-12-17
Packaged: 2020-11-24 00:42:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 5,688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20898824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/Menhera_Piers
Summary: Color's a fickle thing.**CRITICISM APPRECIATED AND ENCOURAGED**





	1. Late

Soulmates; a topic Gonta had never really dwelled on before.

He didn't really understand the concept (how could two different people have the same soul anyway?), but he did know that you were born not able to see a color, and that color was the color of your soulmate's eyes. Apparently when you made eye contact with your soulmate for the first time, suddenly you could see that color and everything else got more vibrant.

His missing color was yellow.

Of course, yellow was a fairly rare color, so he didn't count on meeting them today. A distant hope, however, had him believe maybe he would.

So as he ran down the hall scanning the signs for the classroom he was looking for, he ran the names he could remember through his head and wondered if it could be one of them.

Finally he came upon the room he was looking for and without another moment's hesitation, he opened the door.

"Gokuhara, you're late."

Great.

* * *

Gonta wasn't really good at English. He knew exactly what he wanted to say, be it speaking or writing, but when it came to putting together the words they were always awkward and fumbled. Broken English, he'd been told.

So _of course_ this first class of his was English.

They were writing persuasive essays, in an attempt to "convince" the teacher of something. Thankfully, he'd been allowed to work with a well-spoken student (her name was Angie) so he didn't screw it up too badly.

"Gonta?"

He looked up from the blank paper. "Hm?"

"You spaced out for a second."

"O-oh." He looked off to the side sheepishly. "Gonta sorry."

She nodded understandingly. "I know this class is boring, I can't blame you. Anyway, do you know what you want to write about yet?"

He looked around the room, eyes landing on her smock. It was grey with long-dried paint splotches on it in all the colors one could imagine, a couple of the splotches also appearing grey.

_So it's probably all yellow._

He shrugged.

"Let's do something simple then." She thought for a moment. "Do you like cats or dogs?"

"Gonta like bugs."

Angie smiled warmly. "Then why don't you write about why you think bugs are better than cats and dogs?"

Gonta nodded and took the grey- _no, it's yellow_\- pencil Angie handed to him, and began to write the outline as she instructed.


	2. Meeting

By the end of class, he'd finished the outline for the paper and was halfway done with the first rough draft. He'd thanked Angie (she had given him her number in case he needed help with something outside of English) and then went back to his locker to get what he needed for math.

"Hello. You're Gonta, correct?"

He looked over to the source of the voice. A silver-haired, green-eyed girl who was a bit shorter than him stood at the locker next to his, swapping some textbooks in her black messenger bag with ones in her locker. He couldn't help but notice her gloves, which had metal rings attached to them, and her black dress with a grey spiderweb design on the front.

"Hello...."

She closed her locker, met eyes with Gonta, then chuckled. "Oh, where are my manners? My name is Kirumi. You have math as well, correct?"

He nodded.

"Would you like to walk with me?"

He nodded again, picking up his backpack with a blue butterfly pattern and going with Kirumi.

"We're in the same classes for math, science, and art, in case you weren't aware."

"Oh."

"We share math and art with Kokichi, Korekiyo, and Tenko, who you would have met during homeroom if you hadn't been late."

"How--"

"Angie told me. Anyways...."

Gonta wasn't paying attention at this point. He was busy thinking about the three names she'd given.

Kokichi, Korekiyo, Tenko.

Korekiyo was a nice name. They sounded like a person he'd like to be friends with. Kokichi and Tenko sounded nice as well, but there was something about Korekiyo's name that gave him.... a sort of warm feeling.

They arrived at the classroom not a moment too soon. Just before sitting at their previously assigned seats, Kirumi had given Gonta a diagram that showed who sat where.

He scanned over the names and looked around.

Korekiyo sat near the front, way ahead of Gonta. They- _no, that's gotta be a she_\- had long, dark blue-green hair that was partially tucked under a dark green hat with a red ribbon wrapped around the middle, and what wasn't tucked fell past the shoulders and onto a dark green army jacket.

Kokichi, who sat a few seats across from him, had shoulder-length purple-black hair that curled upward near the ends. He also wore a top reminiscent of a straitjacket and a black-and-white checkered bandanna tied around his neck. He had his arms folded behind his head and was blowing bubbles with some purple bubblegum, paying no mind to the no-gum-in-class rule.

After a moment, he glanced over at Gonta, spat out the gum into an empty Grape Panta bottle half-full of other wads of bubblegum, and smiled.

Gonta eyed him suspiciously (he noticed in particular Kokichi was intentionally avoiding DIRECT eye contact) before turning his attention to Tenko. She sat at a desk diagonal from him, to his right.

She was asleep.

Already bored of looking around, Gonta didn't bother observing her and folded up the paper, pocketing it and putting his attention on the teacher.


	3. Mistake

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is really, really, really short, it wasn't intended to be, but I had originally written this and chapter 4 as one chapter and if I had left it as-is, it wouldn't have sounded right.

As it turned out, Korekiyo had the same exact schedule as him, except social studies and English were swapped.

He hadn't gotten to see her face or hear her voice yet because she was always seated in the front and hadn't spoken, which was a shame, but he'd have time to talk to her at lunch, which was thankfully after their current class; art.

Their art teacher, whose name had already slipped his mind, was going through each of the students and asking them to introduce themselves.

"Tojo."

She nodded and stood up, holding herself confidently and speaking clearly. "My name is Kirumi Tojo, and I'm 14 years old. I didn't pass the 7th grade last year due to truancy and poor grades, and so I'm repeating. I hope I can become good friends with you all." Kirumi sat back down.

"Shinguji? I'm aware you don't like talking about yourself, but if you're comfortable--"

"It's fine."

Her voice was really low and deep for a gi--

_Oh._

_**Oh.** _

_Korekiyo's a_ ** _ boy._ **

Gonta felt his face begin to heat up from his silly mistake and he quickly ducked to cover it, but not before Angie silently pantomimed a laugh.


	4. Introduction

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In contrast, this is pretty long.

Korekiyo got to his feet. "I'm Korekiyo Shinguji, a-as most of you know."

His voice was shaky and uncertain, and yet everything about his body language screamed calm, composed.

From his time in the woods, Gonta had learned fear had a scent, and now that Korekiyo had began speaking, the classroom reeked of it.

_What's wrong?_

"I-I'm 12 years old, and I like reading and drawing. W-while I'm not against m-making friends, I-I'd prefer to be left alone m-most of the time." He immediately sat back down, and the fear dissipated.

Gonta couldn't help but watch the teacher place a hand on his shoulder and say something to him in a hushed whisper.

Something along the lines of "so much better than usual, I'm so proud of you".

_Wonder what that could mean._

"Gokuhara, you're new here. How about you?"

Gonta shook his head.

_No, no, no, don't make me talk in front of the class!_

"Gonta, it's okay. Nobody's going to judge you," Kirumi reassured.

Gonta just put his head down with a groan, resulting in a few giggles from the others.

"I understand." The teacher cleared her throat. "Now that most of us are acquainted, let's talk about something we all understand at least to a certain extent; color."

Gonta sat back up. He was interested now.

"Now..... color's a fickle thing. For some reason, a color escapes us from birth. Usually it's only one color, but in some cases, there's more. Meaning multiple soulmates." She smiled. "This year is special. Most of our students this year are either missing a rather rare color, or are missing multiple. And a few of our students have already met their respective soulmates here, at this very school."

She began walking around the room. "I think we can all agree that color is beautiful, yes?"

Various murmurs of agreement.

"It plays a very large role in art. Color can express so many different themes and emotions that other things.... simply cannot. Without color, life would be dull. Boring. Practically meaningless. Which is why it's unfortunate we must go without the full beauty of life for some time." She paused. "Yes, Yonaga?"

"Have you met your soulmate?"

"Yes, I have." She smiled and began passing blank papers and boxes of crayons around.

Kirumi smiled knowingly and took out a red crayon.

"If you check the labels, you'll notice I took out the real grey crayon."

Gonta watched a few students take out various colors and check. Sure enough, there was no grey in the box.

"I want you to take the crayon, or crayons, that appear grey to you and write down some things about how you predict that color will look. You can use sentences, words, sounds, anything that comes to mind. When you are done, raise your hand and I will collect your papers. If you've met them already and therefore don't see grey, you may use this time to doodle." She turned to a white-haired student with a prominent ahoge in the center row. "Yes, Idabashi?"

"What does this have to do with art?"

"As I said, color plays a huge role in art, and this exercise will help us understand the meaning of color and therefore how to incorporate color properly into our art." She directed her attention back to the rest of the class. "You may begin."


	5. Red and Purple Look Nice Together

"Bright", "happy", "different", "music", "unique", random shapes and scribbles, so on and so on.

It had been much harder than he'd like to admit to put this onto paper, but it had been easier than normal since it could be random. It didn't have to make sense to anyone but himself.

It didn't have to be right.

He raised his hand, and the teacher walked over to collect his paper. She scanned over the marks, and smiled at Gonta. "I have high hopes for you this year, Gonta."

She then moved on to collect Korekiyo's.

.....He hadn't noticed that before.

_Why are Korekiyo's hands and wrists bandaged?_

He knew what self-harm was, and he wasn't about to say that Korekiyo didn't seem like the type because he knew full-well anyone had the capacity to intentionally hurt themselves, but..... that didn't feel like the right answer.

_If I asked, that'd be prying. It's likely nobody else knows, so it'd be pointless asking them._

He picked up a red crayon and added to the many doodles on the desk.

That is, until a certain purple-eyed-purple-haired gum-chewer made his way over to the desk.

"Gonta."

"Hm?" He didn't look up from the ladybug he was attempting to draw on the filthy desk.

"Look at meeeee," he whined.

Gonta looked past Kokichi and instead looked at the paper still on his desk.

He could see blue and red crayon.

He looked back over at Kokichi and, albeit reluctantly, made eye contact, watching as Kokichi's pupils dilated slightly and his pseudo-frown quickly turned into a wide grin.

"If Kokichi think Gonta like you--"

Kokichi clapped a hand over his mouth, looking over at Korekiyo and then back to Gonta. "I know your color's yellow and you don't have multiple and all, but the point still stands. It wouldn't be fair if you didn't, at the very least, give me the time of day before deciding where we're gonna go with this one-sided-soulmate bull."

_True...._

"So, let's sit at lunch together. Deal?"

Gonta hesitated, then nodded.

"Nishishi~ You act like I'd give you a choice." He removed his hand from Gonta's mouth and then went back to his desk.


	6. Sick

  
Kokichi had them sit near the front and off to the side in the cafeteria.

"Best place for people-watching," he'd said.

Gonta didn't much care for the idea of spending the period staring at people, so he'd opted to rolling up his sleeve and doodling on his arm with a Sharpie instead. He'd also colored his nails, just for the sake of doing so.

"I'm gonna assume you like drawing," Kokichi half-said, half-asked after swallowing the last bite of his sandwich and drinking a good third of the Panta bottle he'd gotten from a vending machine.

Gonta simply nodded.

"I mean, it-- oh, look."

Gonta looked up.

Korekiyo immediately got out of his seat and left the cafeteria, leaving his belongings behind. He was obviously in too much of a hurry to bother warning anybody, but at the same time, everyone seemed to have a sense of silent recognition as they continued their conversations.

"Is Korekiyo okay?"

"He does this every day. He'll eat and then make himself puke it all up." Kokichi said this worryingly casually, as if it was the most normal thing in the world for a student to do.

"That.... bulimia, right?"

Kokichi nodded. "Last year one of the teachers tried talking to him about it and he ended up having to 'go away' for a while." He cleared his throat. "Anyways, about our beautiful, blossoming relationship."

Gonta just stared at him blankly, and Kokichi had to laugh.  
"It was a joke!"

"Oh...." He chuckled. "Sorry."

"You're fine." Kokichi took another swig of Panta. "I already know what I'm thinking, but I wanna know how you feel about our situation."

"Well..... Gonta think we no work out if we tried. It too soon. But Gonta definitely want to be friends."

"I see where you're coming from...." After a moment's consideration, he smiled and folded his arms behind his head, entire upper body tilting slightly to the left. "Alright, we can work with that!"

The next few minutes were spent getting to know one another and the occasional observation of other students, and yet Korekiyo still hadn't come back.

"Should we check on him?"

"Hm?"

"Korekiyo. Should we check on him?"

"Nah, he should be fine."

"_Tch._"

Kokichi tossed the now-empty Panta bottle into the trashcan behind them and popped a new piece of bubblegum into his mouth. "I'm gonna head back to the vending machine. Want anything?"

Gonta shook his head.

"It's by an exit. Kiyo goes outside when he pukes."

Gonta was clearly considering it now.

"We could go there, I could get some soda and you could check on him.... Maybe I could grab something for him, too."

Gonta stood up and went with Kokichi.


	7. Soulmates

"Kokichi sure we not get in trouble?"

"There's a ridiculous amount of kids here, you think they're gonna notice 3 gone?"

No response.

Kokichi snickered and stopped at the vending machine, gesturing to a door with a bright pink "EXIT" on it.

"He should be out there."

Gonta quickly opened the door and went outside, closing the door behind him.

Korekiyo was behind a dumpster at the edge of the parking lot, retching and coughing, trying to force something up despite having obviously already emptying the contents of his stomach.

It was..... heartbreaking, really.

"Korekiyo?" He did his best to make his tone as calm and gentle, but not quiet to the point where he couldn't be heard.

Korekiyo continued coughing, either ignoring Gonta or having not heard him.

Ignoring the putrid stench of vomit (which was easier that you'd think, he'd smelled much worse), he took a step closer.

"Korekiyo." Still calm, but less soft.

This worked.

Bringing up bile with a final, particularly forceful cough, Korekiyo wiped his mouth on his sleeve, rinsed his mouth out with water, put on a black surgical mask, and stood up. Without taking his eyes off of the ground, he turned to Gonta.

"You're Gokuhara, correct?" He sounded calmer and more confident than earlier.

"Yes. How--"

"You won an award this time last year. It was all over the news."

_Oh._

He gave Korekiyo a sheepish smile. "G-gonta forgot about that over summer."

"How does one simply forget about being a celebrity, even if only briefly?"

He looked away. "Gonta very busy."

"Ah."

"Hey, losers!" Kokichi's higher voice rang out.

The boy in question ran toward the two, hands full of some drinks and snacks. He handed Korekiyo a bottle of unsweetened iced tea, practically shoved a bottle of cherry Coke and a bag of assorted saltwater taffy into Gonta's arms, and kept a bottle of grape Panta and a packet of grape bubblegum to himself.

_Who's bright idea was it to put gum in the vending machine at a no-gum school, anyway? And how did Kokichi know what soda and candy I like?_

Oh, well. He wasn't going to complain. Anything sweet was a very, very rare indulgence; until now, it would seem.

"Kokichi?"

"Yes, Kiyo?" he asked in a sing-song tone.

"You only buy drinks and snacks for other people when you're planning something." Korekiyo tugged down his mask and took a drink of his tea. "What are you doing this time?"

"I'm just trying to be nice!"

"I'm not stupid. I've known you for 5 years."

Kokichi sighed loudly and dramatically in mock defeat. "Fiiiine....." He looked around the painfully empty parking lot, as if there was anyone else around that might overhear. "Your colors align, so I thought you two might be--"

Korekiyo quickly put his mask back over his mouth and turned to Gonta.

His eyes were sharp, pupils slitted like a cat's and widened in surprise and anticipation. And the color...

_Yellow's beautiful._

The world lit up.

* * *

On the way to gym, the trio didn't say a word to each other.

There was nothing to be said, anyway.

"Oh, look." Kokichi pointed to a bunch of papers stapled to the bulletin board.

"Sign-up sheets already? Those are usually put up on day 3...."

Gonta went over, and sure enough, the papers were sign-up sheets for various clubs and extracurriculars.

Gaming, sports, tech stuff, none of it caught his eye.

"Doing the art club again, Kiyo?" Kokichi asked, signing his name on the sheets for the robotics, theater, and career clubs.

Korekiyo nodded and signed the respective sheet. "Gonta, there's a biology club," he pointed out. " I participated last year, there's quite a bit of discussion about insects near the middle of the year."

Gonta nodded and signed his name without hesitation. (He also signed up for the art club, and it totally wasn't because Korekiyo and Angie would be there.)


	8. Dodgeball

The gym teacher, Gonta decided, was a massive jerk. (Okay, that wasn't what he decided, but the original was much more vulgar.)

One word: dodgeball. AKA, every kid's worst nightmare, both in movies and in real life.

He'd been put on a team with Tenko, a girl named Miu, and students from other classes (Sakura, Gundham, and Nekomaru were the only ones he'd gotten a chance to learn the names of).

Because a lot of them were athletically inclined, their team was winning by a landslide.

_Which is pretty unfair_, Gonta said to himself as he narrowly avoided getting hit in the stomach.

"Tanaka, you're out!" the teacher yelled.

_Great, the only one who uses any sort of strategy_.

The one who'd hit Gundham, a pale white-haired boy, was currently laughing, presumably in triumph.

Gonta picked up a dodgeball from the floor and threw it at him, purely out of spite.

Funnily enough, it hit the boy full-force just below the belt. His knees buckled and he fell to the floor with an inhuman groan.

"Komaeda, out!"

_Hell yes._

"There goes his ability to have kids!" Miu called, laughing maniacally and throwing balls at the other team.

Gonta caught a ball in mid-air and geared up to throw it.

"Gonta, watch out!" Kokichi shouted from the other side of the gym.

He turned just in time to be hit in the face.

"Gokuhara, out!"

On his way to the bleachers, he could hear the teacher shout, "Shinguji, Ouma, Soda, all of you are out!"

Kokichi and Korekiyo sat with him, and this "Soda" guy sat with Gundham and an older blonde who'd been out for about 20 minutes.

"So," Korekiyo started, grabbing his tea out of his bag. "What now?"

"Gonta literally hit Nagito in the--"

Korekiyo covered Kokichi's mouth with his hand.


	9. Bus

The rest of the day came and went without notable incident.

Whenever it had fallen quiet, Korekiyo had found his thoughts (and often his gaze) shifting to Gonta.

To think that he, some failed approximation of a person bent on self-destruction, had the son of two high-class millionaires and youngest officially licensed entomologist ever as a soulmate..... to say it was surreal and a little scary would be a pathetic understatement.

_Tch._

Fitting. Pathetic understatement for a pathetic-- no. No, he wasn't pathetic.

He was far below that.

Sister had helped him understand that.

_Oh no._

_She'll be terribly angry when she finds out._

But.... red really was a lovely color. Rich and deep and so full of life, and so many meanings and things it could be connected to.

Her lipstick, Gonta's eyes, his blood, Her rope.

When they had met eyes, Gonta had an undecipherable expression.

_What he was in my eyes is likely the same as what I see in dear Sister's._

Following that route, Gonta had been entranced, disgusted, and terrified all at once.

But.... he didn't act that way.

No matter. He could fret later. He needed to focus on this pretest.

* * *

The bus ride home was surprisingly peaceful. No screaming and shouting and throwing of items, just students calmly speaking with their friends and soulmates.

Except for him.

He and Gonta were seated next to one another in complete silence.

He hadn't looked at Gonta even once--_ I'm a terrible person for that_\-- and had instead stared at the window while Gonta had been wordlessly holding his hand.

And so it had been for around 10 minutes.

"Gonta?" he tried, cautiously and timidly. _I'll keep working on this, I shouldn't show vulnerability._

"Hm?"

"Do you--"

"Gokuhara, this is your stop!" the bus driver called.

Gonta looked away, grabbing his bag and standing. "See you tomorrow," he said simply, walking down the aisle and exiting the bus.

Saddened by the sudden loneliness, Korekiyo held his own hand and idly rubbed his thumb against it like Gonta had.

It wasn't the same.


	10. Her

Before entering Her room, he'd removed his boots, hung up his jacket and bag, brushed his hair, and removed his mask.

Anything else he would've done was Her privilege alone.

Slowly, he opened the door.

"Welcome home, Korekiyo," she greeted, low and melodic voice even but not quite monotone.

She was a (pitiful, but he didn't dare admit that to himself nor aloud to Her) lovely sight.

Lying in the bed Her illness confined Her to, long, dark smooth and soft hair falling far past Her shoulders, simple too-big nightgown dwarfing Her already small and thin frame.

The maroon sherpa blanket was pulled up to Her waist, and a half-read book lay in her lap. Her IV bag was half-empty.

"Hello, sister."

She shifted Her body a bit to the right. Korekiyo knew this was Her way of saying "come sit with me," and so he obeyed without hesitation.

She applied a fresh coat of red lipstick, the pigment striking against Her pale, almost paper-white skin. "How was your first day back?"

"It was fine." He kept his eyes on the blanket, refusing to look Her in the eye.

"Really? Just fine?"

He nodded.

She smiled warmly and took his hand in Hers, slowly unwrapping the bandages. Only She had the privilege of his bare skin, and so taking off the bandages was Her task alone. "Did anything interesting happen today?"

"Kokichi bought me a drink."

"Hm." She put the bandages aside and began unwrapping the other hand. "Anything else?"

"I met my soulmate."

She stopped, grabbed Korekiyo's chin, and forced him to look at Her. "Repeat that."

Her calm tone hadn't changed, but there was now a dangerous edge to Her voice.

Korekiyo took a shaky breath. "I met my soulmate, dear Sister."


	11. Cruel

She chuckled. "You know that you're less than human and therefore undesirable, yes?"

"Yes, Sister."

"And you know I'm the only one who could ever love and desire you."

"Yes, Sister."

She let go of his chin and instead cupped his cheek. "Forget about her."

"Him, actually. He's a boy, Sister."

She stared at him a moment, then laughed aloud, Her slight frown twisting into a smile.

"What's funny, Sister?"

Her smile fell and She lovingly wrapped Her arms around Korekiyo. "Forget him, then, sweet Korekiyo. No man could ever love something as worthless as you, now, would they?"

"No, Sister."

"You belong only to me. You wouldn't give your heart to someone else. You know better, correct?"

"Yes, Sister."

"Kiss me."

Terrified to anger Her, he obeyed.

When Korekiyo tried to pull away after a moment, She pulled him back. She only let him break the kiss when She had decided they needed to breathe.

Her lipstick left Korekiyo's lips stained red.

"You look lovely like this, Korekiyo."

"Thank you, Sister." He looked down at the blanket.

"You should wear your lipstick more often."

"Yes, Sister."

"I love you, Korekiyo." She smiled.

"I love you too, dear Sister," he mumbled in reply.

_I hate Her._


	12. Sanctuary

Korekiyo helped Her switch out Her IV bag after dinner.

A small thanks, he'd told himself (if only to shut up his doubts), for all of the kindness She's given.

_It was selfish to be upset with Her. She's given so much up of Herself for me._

He'd stayed in Her room, talking with Her, until She'd fallen asleep, at which point he put on her oxygen mask for her (Her illness made it so She had trouble breathing while asleep) and went back to his own room.

Another kindness of Hers; his own space.

However, She had always told him to keep the space minimal as possible (it'd be selfish of him to give himself the decor She never had), and so his room has nothing unnecessary.

Simply the bed, the dresser, a mirror, and things such as his bandages, his lipstick, and his mask.

He'd always felt confined and unsettled by the clinical-looking setting.

So it was lucky he'd found a trap door She didn't know about.

He knelt down in a space between the dresser and the wall, pushing the small door open and crawling in.

The actual space, which was a hidden room in of itself, was comfortably sized, the ceiling just low enough that he had to duck down while standing.

The floor was covered in patterned soft, fluffy blankets that Kokichi and Kiibo had gifted to him, various throw pillows (most of which were red) scattered about, and several sleeping bags, also gifted, for the nights his friends snuck in.

The walls and ceiling were decorated with glow-in-the-dark stars (from Kaito as one of those "I-don't-know-you-or-care-about-you-but-happy-birthday" gifts at school in 5th grade), many, many stickers (mostly brought in by Kazuichi and Kokichi), a poster or two (given by Ibuki), and many scratches, writings, and doodles by everyone he'd let in.

The room was lit by a small but bright battery-powered lamp in the corner, placed next to the miniature bookshelf and on top of the bin that held art supplies and plenty of paper.

It was always warm here.

After switching on the lamp and beginning to close the door, he paused.

_Knock. Knock. Knock._

_Ah. _

Three of them were here, signaled by the 3 knocks on the window. It was a simple code, really, if you could even call it a code.

Korekiyo quickly crawled back out, put on his mask and bandages, then drew back the curtain and opened the window.

In climbed Kokichi, Kazuichi, and Angie.


	13. Not Quite Our Friends, And Yet We Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> People are social beings. They need friendship; people who empathize, listen, or have fun together.

"Hello, Korekiyo!" Angie flashed the younger a friendly grin, clasping her hands above her head. "God told Angie you found your soulmate!"

Kokichi rolled his eyes. "No, _I_ told you. You don't need to involve God in everything."

Angie just blinked and directed her attention back to Korekiyo. "Who are they? Your soulmate, I mean."

"We can talk about it in the hideaway," Kazuichi chimed in.

Korekiyo nodded. "It's rather chilly out here, anyways.

None of the other three felt the chill, but they went into the aforementioned hideaway all the same.

* * *

"So, Kiyo," Kazuichi began after a few minutes of pleasant chatter. "Koki here didn't tell us who it was, but we're not gonna pry if it makes you uncomfortable." Kazuichi smiled, baring his abnormally sharp teeth.

"Neither will Angie!" the chipper white-blonde agreed. "God says everyone has a right to privacy!"

"No, it's fine, but I appreciate it." Korekiyo chuckled. "It's Gonta."

Angie's eyes widened. "Whoa.... really?"

"Isn't that the green-haired kid who hit Nagito in the nuts?"

Angie nodded. "I'm partnered with him in English."

Kokichi pulled out his phone and loaded a news article from the previous year. "He won an award and got _international_ recognition for being the youngest licensed entomologist in the world."


	14. Friendship's a Beautiful Thing

Korekiyo smiled under the mask.

"If that's really the case," Kazuichi remarked, "Then he's well on his way to becoming an Ultimate if Hope's Peak is scouting him."

"And they are! So says God." Angie was grinning now.

Kokichi looked over at Korekiyo. "How do you feel about him?"

Korekiyo looked down at the blankets, holding the edge of one in his hand and rubbing it with his thumb.

Even if he couldn't feel it through the bandages, it was still nice.

"I like him. More than a friend, but not like that. Something in between, I guess."

A nod from the shorter boy.

Korekiyo felt Kokichi hug him from behind. "Well, if you two don't work out, just tell him to come to me!"

He picked up a pillow and hit Kokichi in the face, knocking him onto his back on the floor.

"Nishishi~ Jealous, are we?"

"You little--" Korekiyo hit him with the pillow again.

Kokichi grabbed another pillow to defend himself, swinging wildly at the taller.

Angie and Kazuichi exchanged glances before grabbing pillows of their own.

"Nyahahahaha! God says, take that!"

"Ow, what the--"

"Dude, get off of me!"


	15. Home

Gonta sighed.

He was awfully bored, despite watching a movie on his tablet ("no, it's a Monopad. Gokuhara family exclusive, nobody else could ever have these," his father would correct him if he were here).

To be fair, it wasn't the best of movies, but he'd already watched everything else what felt like a million times.

"Is everything alright?" the chauffeur asked in her usual caring tone.

"Everything fine, Midori." He set the tablet down next to him and looked out the limo window. "How much longer?"

"We should arrive in 20 minutes. 25 at the most." She paused. "Is there anything you'd like to do in the meantime? Another guessing game?"

Gonta perked up. "Yep!"

"Alright." She smiled. "You go first, kiddo."

"Uh-huh. I'm thinking of.... a plant."

* * *

Gonta's mother pulled him into a tight hug. "Gonta, darling! I missed you!"

"Gonta missed you too, Mom!" He hugged back, grinning happily.

"So how was your first day of school?"

"It was good!"

"That's good!" She grinned. "How about you head inside? When I come in, you can tell me all about it, okay?"

Gonta nodded excitedly and went inside, going upstairs to his bedroom and changing from his school clothes into something more comfortable. Just as he put on his favorite necklace, which had a ladybug pendant, a knock came on the door.

"Come in," he cheerfully sing-songed.

His mother walked in and sat down on a chair near the side of the room. Gonta grinned and picked up a sketchbook from his desk, starting to doodle some _Actias dubernardi_.

"So, Gonta, tell me about your day. I'm listening."

"Gonta made some friends."

"Really now? That's wonderful!" She leaned forward, interest caught.

"There's Kokichi, Korekiyo, Angie, and Kirumi." He set the sketchbook down and put his pencil beside it. "Kokichi break rules a lot, but he's nice. Korekiyo... he Gonta's soulmate. Angie hel--"

"You found your soulmate today?"

Gonta nodded.

"Oh, I'm so happy for you! What's he like?"

"Kinda shy and quiet. He responsible and really nice once he warms up to you, though!"

He sounds wonderful."

"And, and! He trying to get into Hope's Peak when he's older, too!"

"Really? What Ultimate is he trying to get?"

Gonta thought a moment. "Ultimate An... Anthropologist, Gonta think it called?"

"You said that perfectly, Gonta! I'm proud of you!"

"Thank you, Mom."

"You're very welcome, darling."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It took me way too long to figure out what I was gonna do with this chapter.  
Hope you enjoy taking a peek at Gonta's home life.


	16. Beginning of Tuesday

"Everyone, please be quiet and pay attention while we take attendance."

The room, surprisingly, fell quiet.

"Akamatsu."

"Here."

"Amami."

"Here."

"Chabashira."

"Here."

"Gokuhara."

"Here!"

"Harukawa."

"Here."

"Hoshi."

"Here..."

"Idabashi."

"Present."

"Iruma."

"Here."

"Momota."

"Here."

"Ouma."

"Here."

"Saihara."

"Here."

"Shinguji."

"H-here."

"Shirogane."

"Here."

"Tojo."

"Present."

"Yonaga."

"Here."

"Yumeno."

"Nyeh. Here."

* * *

Angie was much more vibrant the next time Gonta seen her. Everything and everyone was more vibrant as well, but she was particularly notable.

Her marigold smock contrasted with the old and new paint stains coating the sleeves and most of the front in all colors (including yellow.) Her daisy-white hair was held back with sunflower-yellow and fuchsia clips and a bubblegum-pink scrunchie, and her nails were painted in the primary colors.

Aside from vibrant, the other word his mind supplied was pretty.

He shook his head as if to shake off the thought. Why would he think like that about someone who wasn't his soulmate?

_ Isn't that wrong? _

"Are you ready to finish the rough draft for the paper?" she asked cheerfully.

Gonta nodded.

"This shouldn't take too long..."

"Is that a challenge?"

Angie rolled her eyes.


End file.
